As I enter my last few months as president of the Chicago Teachers Union, it is important to reflect on our educators’ roles in shaping the narrative around public education in our city.
In more than 20 years of service to Chicago Public Schools students, families, educators and school communities, I have seen a system imperiled by privatization, corruption and institutional racism. We have an immense problem of wealth and white privilege when Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois, can bankroll a sitting mayor and suggest the closure of 125 schools, almost exclusively in Black neighborhoods. Thanks to our advocacy alongside the Grassroots Education Movement, however, the era of mayoral control has been dealt some significant setbacks.
Our union has secured moratoriums on school closings and charter school expansion, which will stop attacks that led to the loss of 50% of Black educators and were a major factor in the loss of nearly 300,000 Black people from the city over the last two decades. There will be an elected representative school board starting in 2024 for the first time in our district’s nearly 200-year history. Our union has restored the pension financing that was suspended by former Mayor Richard M. Daley for a decade, which led to dire consequences for funding levels for city workers. For the first time ever, CPS will have full-time social workers and nurses in every school due to our 2019 contract campaign. Black educators, targeted for layoffs at CPS ”turnaround” schools, won a $9.25 million settlement from the district.
More than one arena
This is an election year inside of our union, and we know the same forces that wanted to destabilize public education have turned their sights upon us. That is not to say that there isn’t criticism of our work that represents legitimate differences among our membership. Some have suggested we should spend more time on “bread and butter” issues like salary and benefits. School funding, however, is determined by federal and state governments. Curriculum, disciplinary policies, even the attendance we take every day are governed by the state school code. Our union must advocate in numerous arenas to secure the resources necessary for our students and schools to thrive.
In just the past year alone, that work has become increasingly more difficult through dark money targeting schools as places where we shouldn’t teach the truth about racism and slavery, and where book and mask bans are suddenly in vogue. Black and Latino children and families on the South and West sides of Chicago continue to suffer from generations of neglect, so our work is far from done.
The CTU has been criticized for being too aggressive, and too insistent that past wrongs and injustices to our students and their families be addressed. If our students don’t have homes, health care or public safety, however, it is only a matter of time before more of their schools are closed, homes foreclosed, jobs downsized and families displaced.
For the common good
If we ignore the greater social context of our work, we do so at our collective peril. So I make no apologies for leading a fighting union when public education has been under attack in our city for more than two decades. Our willingness to fight has improved conditions in classrooms by lowering class sizes, and increasing nurse and social worker staffing — directing more resources to schools most in need.
In our agreement with the Chicago Board of Education, we have gained professional development for bilingual education teachers, and worked with the district to remove obstacles to parents of English-learners volunteering in our schools. We secured an additional $25 million for CPS sports programs, and increased support for sustainable community schools. Paraprofessional compensation increases by 40% throughout the life of our contract. Unionized charter schools have historic agreements that have protected students and educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have accomplished a lot, both for bread-and-butter and the common good, and I am proud of it all. I entered teaching with hope, not despair, and an unflagging commitment to defend and elevate the most vulnerable. That will continue as I return to the classroom in the fall, and our union will continue to fight for the schools our students deserve.
Jesse Sharkey is the outgoing president of the Chicago Teachers Union.
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